Iain Taylor has been something of a disco hobo, doing the rounds of the major Manchester nightclubs. His first ever gig was at The Haçienda back in 1995 which made big waves for the fledgling DJ and then paved the way for more gigs and guest spots at some of the other celebrated Venues the city had to offer. Places like the Music Box, (The Old) Sankeys, The notorious Home nightclub & Dry201. Being a guest DJ was great and everything, for a while and as his reputation and list of contacts grew a steady stream of gigs began to come in regularly taking Iain up and down the country. Iain however had an overwhelming urge to spread his creative wings and take more control over where and wholm he Dj'd with, especially in Manchester. Manchester was Iain's New York. If he could make it there, he'd make it anywhere.
This urge lead to Iain promoting several rather successful and widely celebrated clubnights in the city and allowed him to have total control over who played together and the entire concept and musical programming of the events. Of course the big headed bugger loved that!. His first foray into the world of Club promoter / DJ was a night called Firstlight, a no holds barred night of across the board music that tipped its hat to Block Parties & Bigbeat while having one eye on the future and one ear to the ground. Iain booked and DJ'd with acts as diverse as Afrika Bambatta De La Soul, The Jungle Brothers & Jon Carter right up to people like The Scratch Perverts, Mr Scruff, Freddy Fresh & The Una Bombers. As his musical tastes developed and music production moved on Iain simultaneously began to work on a new concept. The widely reviewed and still to this day often celebrated future music night Airtight.
AIRTIGHT was predominantly built around the exciting emerging scene of Nu Skool Breakbeat with sprinklings of Tech House & Techno added for good measure. These events offered an antidote to the very HOUSE / TECHNO scene in Manchester at that time. These forward thinking events really helped to put Iain firmly in the sights of the UK press & onto the international stage. Airtight's notoriety and credibility then paved the way for a four-year year residency at Sankeys for their legendary Tribal Sessions party where Iain really came into his own playing right across the board from Hip Hop & Breaks to Tech House, Breaks & Techno before literary nearly every big name you can think of in electronic music & Hip Hop. After the owners of Sankeys parted company in 2006 with majority of the DJs and staff jumping ship to help set up the Warehouse Project, Iain made the dubious decision to stay on at Sankeys and put his future in the hands of David Vincent, 3 months later he hung up the headphones on his Sankeys legacy. Iain always favoured an underdog and had had so many good years with Sankeys he did not want to leave, especially not for his name to become lost among the monster line ups of the mighty WHP. Instead Iain stuck it out and satyed on as resident DJ and musical consultant at Sankeys and helped stear the club in a much more underground and new musical direction. This is how Rejekt was born. Parties that brought together the by now familiar sounds of Tech House & Breaks and mixed them with the new electronic sounds coming out of Europe. The underground sound of London, Berlin & Ibiza. Watergate & Panorama Bar meets The End and Fabric all on their way to a heavy session at DC10 & then Cocoon.
After deciding to leave Sankeys, Iain & Rejekt were immediately snapped up for a residency with the Warehouse Project and their stint at the Paradise Factory Nightclub. This venture only lasted 6 months in total due to licensing restrictions and problems with local residents and the booming soundsystem the WHP boys had installed in the petite but perfectly formed former factory records nightclub. However short lived the project, it felt great to be wanted and Iain was re united for a while with some old friends and familiar faces.
While all of this coming and going was.. well, coming and going Iain battened down the hatches and with fellow warrior misfit Saski they started to throw off the radar, warehouse parties, parties that brought the nascent spirit of rave back in the 21st Century and unwittingly etched Rejekts into Manchester's late night folk law.
When Iain does pop his head overground, he has always remained true to the underground and leaves time and space to play for the city's more intimate DIY parties like Back2Front, Dirty Analogue & El Diablo's Social Club.
Further afield and with a heavily stamped passport that has seen Iain play China approaching 20 times and across most of Asia, South America, The USA and all through Europe (notably an island called Ibiza), it was always going to take something special to once again moor Iain to his home-town of Manchester. But we can announce that Iain, already a DJ, promoter, producer and record label boss, can now add 'Musical Director' to his CV, as he's appointed as Resident DJ & Joint Head of Music at Manchester's fabulous new(ish) venue Area 51.
Iain brings his sound to Area51 two or three times a month (commitments permitting) on occasions playing under his Rejekt moniker for the clubs more underground / Techno based events. Determined to keep at the very forefront of new music, Iain digs deep into all four corners of his record box to turn up cuts old, new and middle-aged??? Cuts that are deep, melodic and hypnotic, blended together with loops, samples, and three or four-deck mixing. "It's crucial to actually spend time at the club as a punter as well as playing," says Iain, taking his new role extremely seriously. "Area51 closes at 9am and that's perfect for me, after playing for so many of the cities other clubs and promoters, now when they all finish their respective nights our club is still in full swing, so it's all back to ours except now, ours is a beauty of a venue with a stonking fully customised Funktion 1 PA and bass bins that are taller than me. And I'm over 6ft!"
Back in his days as a full time club promoter & DJ Iain had made so many contacts on both sides of that fence that he was able to establish the renowned global booking agency Faze2 and thus worked with everyone from Afrika Bambatta & Grandmaster Flash to Sasha & The Utah Saints to the now great benefit of Area51 as Iain has been able to open his little black book and call on names as diverse as James Lavelle, Freak n Chic Recordings, Steve Lawler, M.A.N.D.Y, Hot Chip, Jesse Rose, DJ Sneak, Rhadoo, Thomas Schumacher, Oxia, Matt Tolfrey, Kenny Hawkes, Felix Da Housecat, MR C, Burnski, Thomas Melchior, Heidi & many many more for roll call at Area 51. He will play himself on April 25th, May 2nd & 9th & June 13th & 20th.
Outside of the new Manchester residency, Iain has also been busy setting up regular Rejekt events & Residencies around the country - in Leeds with Asylum, in Preston at Club Blip and in Exeter at the renowned Pheonix. There are also more tours of South America, Asia and the USA in the pipeline for '09, but only after a full Ibiza season that includes a fortnightly residency for the Zoo Project and their flagship Saturday nights, as well as a weekly residency with them on Wednesdays for their new record label based endeavour Channel Zoo. Iain has also been asked back this year to do dates with Space and there is excited talk of more parties across the island, parties in keeping with the intimate, word of mouth vibe of the Rejekt warehouse parties back home.
Named Area 51 partly because it's in the shadow of the Haçienda (bequeathed the Factory number Faç 51) for Iain, it seems his path has led him home, both musically and spiritually.
